New MRSA 'superbug' found in cow's milk: Scientists

LONDON - AN ENTIRELY new strain of the drug-resistant MRSA superbug has been found in cow's milk and people in Britain and Denmark, a study published on Friday said. The previously unseen variant 'potentially poses a public health problem,' said lead researcher Mark Holmes, senior lecturer in preventive veterinary medicine at Britain's Cambridge University. There was no general threat to the safety of pasteurised milk and dairy products, but people working with animals could be at risk, said the study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Dubbed a 'flesh-eating' bacteria in media reports, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has emerged as a major threat in hospitals around the world, becoming potentially deadly when it infects wounds. 'Although there is circumstantial evidence that dairy cows are providing a reservoir of infection, it is still not kno...